Colored aqueous liquid stains (e.g., blood) are a consumer-related problem in that for garment-related products, conventional washing operations are not generally sufficient to remove such stains from textile materials. Further, consumers do not like to view such blood stains. For these reasons, pre-washing agents are often employed to help facilitate the removal of the stains during washing of garment-related products. In addition to overly complicating the washing process, however, these pre-washing agents are also not a viable alternative in many applications. For example, washable and disposable absorbent articles are often used to handle blood-containing fluids, such as feminine care products and wound dressings. Because these articles are often designed for one-time use, washing is not always practical. Various solutions have therefore been proposed for minimizing the visibility of the red color of blood-containing fluids in disposable absorbent articles. One such method is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,350,711 to Potts, et al., which generally employs Pluronic® surfactants (tri-block copolymer surfactant) to agglomerate red blood cells in blood and menses. One problem with such treatment chemistries, however, is that they can sometimes interfere with other properties of the article, such as its absorption capacity. Furthermore, such treatment chemistries are also typically expensive and relatively difficult to incorporate into the absorbent article during manufacture. Consumers are interested in reducing staining on such absorbent articles so as to reduce potential leakage soiling of their non-disposable undergarments, as well as to reduce the viewability of the unsightly stains from a comfort perspective.
As such, a need currently exits for a relatively inexpensive and simple method for removing colored substances from aqueous fluids.